If your visit to the Classic Rotary Phones Forum was enjoyable or helpful, you may
tell us by making a small donation. The donation can be made safely via PayPal
and will help to off-set the costs of the Forum operation. Thank you!

The phone is a remarkably complex, simple device,
and very rarely ever needs repairs, once you fix them. Dan/Panther

I looked at the Carrier Access ADIT 600 on eBay. they look pretty inexpensive. They seem to be all configured differently. It looks like you need a TDM Controller Card (will it do any phones by it self?). I'm guessing you add FXS Cards (8 phones each, just guessing by the number of lights?). A cable & punchdown block, housing & power supply. again I'm guessing you add FXS cards to add more phones?

« Last Edit: May 09, 2016, 01:32:53 PM by oldguy »

Logged

Gary

unbeldi

I looked the Carrier Access ADIT 600 on eBay. they look pretty inexpensive. They seem to be all configured differently. It looks like you need a TDM Controller Card (will it do any phones by it self?). I'm guessing you add FXS Cards (8 phones each, just guessing by the number of lights?). A cable & punchdown block, housing & power supply. again I'm guessing you add FXS cards to add more phones?

Yes, one box can hold up to 6 FXS cards. I have bought a fully stuffed box for less then $30 incl. shipping. They do show up for ca. $20 at times fully equipped. You just have to wait for the right deal.

I only use 5 FXS cards, and leave one slot for a CMG router card, which speaks the MGCP protocol. I control the box from a Raspberry Pi running my own MGCP software under Asterisk. Asterisk does have an MGCP module too, but it is junk.

I have been considering mounting an RPi board directly onto a PCB card, taking power from the box. It would make it a very compact, self-contained unit.You always need the TDM card in slot A, since it contains the basic operating system for the unit. It has two T1 ports, which can be used for further expansion to another channel bank, for example, but at the expense of local ports, since the MGCP card can only manage up to 48 logical ports.

The ADIT 600 is an impressively flexible call router, one can almost connect any of the ports in any which way one can imagine.

Of course, it does take quite a bit more skill and effort to build a system, and yes... wiring 25-pair Amphenol connectors is more arduous than plugging RJ11s.

Thanks unbeldi, the Carrier Access ADIT 600 looks like a fun project but time consuming, especially if you don't know what you are doing (like me). I think I will start with a 308 or 616 first, that should be enough fun to play with for now, since it seems like it should be plug & play (play literally). phones should be fun right? Once I get my office/phone room setup I will know about how many phones I will be dealing with. i'm guessing about 60 on display but probably not all of them connected. the office & each of 3 rooms upstairs (used to be the kids bedrooms are wire with a second phone jack (from back in the dial up days) but now I can run these lines for a second phone in each room connected to a 308 or 616, whatever I get cheep. yes I can wait for very good deals, I'm cheep & not in a hurry.

I just finished setting up two Adit 600's. Thanks to someone who published their "how to" configuration guide online, I was easily able to connect 64 FXS connections and 16 FXO connections.

It really wasn't that hard and the hardware was fairly cheap. FXO cards are harder to find, but they are out there.

I used FreePBX to install Asterisk, but was impatient enough to not use the GUI interface. I learned a lot more using the Linux command line interface and feel I have a better grasp of the entire software now.

Good luck. It's an awesome feeling when you can dial from one old phone to another, but even better calling out through C*NET to another switch or key system.

I too want to start the process of networking my collection, realizing it will be a long term project. I am taking notes trying to decide which way to go. I think that if I see a good deal on either unit in question...I will buy it.

So I bought a 308 on eBay. He was asking $49.96 BIN + 21.50. I offered him $25 & he took it. My new toy came today. it seems to work fine, even though it needs some cleaning up. My wife was thrilled when I hooked up a bunch of phones & called the house, what a racket, it was great :-) I think I will mount it behind the door, under the key boards, it won't use up any useful wall space that way. Now I will have to read all the threads on 308/616s. I want to figure out how much programming I can do, if any with a touch tone phone. now I need to find a deal on a KX-T7030, KX-T7130, KX-T30830 or KX-T61630.

unbeldi

So I bought a 308 on eBay. He was asking $49.96 BIN + 21.50. I offered him $25 & he took it. My new toy came today. it seems to work fine, even though it needs some cleaning up. My wife was thrilled when I hooked up a bunch of phones & called the house, what a racket, it was great :-) I think I will mount it behind the door, under the key boards, it won't use up any useful wall space that way. Now I will have to read all the threads on 308/616s. I want to figure out how much programming I can do, if any with a touch tone phone. now I need to find a deal on a KX-T7030, KX-T7130, KX-T30830 or KX-T61630.

That's the way to do it, and that's the right price.Let's face the truth, we are the only folks who still want one of these, otherwise they are historical junk.

The best proprietary telephone for configuring, and but especially for usage is probably still the KX-T30830, because it has the correct number of line and CO button corresponding to the PBX. But they are hard to find, at least at an acceptable price. The 7030s are much cheaper to find.Here is my 30830:

Defaulted, the system allows two-digit dialing between extensions, dial 9 for first available outside line, dial 81, 82, 83 to access line 1, line 2, or 3. Also, all phones ring on an incoming call to any of the 3 lines. You can answer these outside calls from any phone, then transfer to another phone by flashing the hookswitch, then dialing the 2-digit ext. no. you want to transfer to.

Programming allows you to change ringing assignments, so that all phones don't ring on incoming calls from outside. You can also program certain lines to ring only on designated phones. Also speed dialing, toll restriction, and other features. One useful feature is the day/night program, so that you can have all or several phones ring in the night mode, but only one or two in the day mode, for example. (This may require leaving the Panasonic phone used for programming connected, in order to have a day/night key to toggle between the two.)